Appetite For Business

Appetite

For

Business

Starting with just $45, Ghanaian entrepreneur Violet Amoabeng’s startup has progressed with skincare products you can eat and the unpalatable realization that the only way to make it in business is to crash, break, stretch and succeed.

BY PEACE HYDE

ITWOULDBEHARDTO decideifyouwouldplaceViolet Amoabeng’s products in the beauty cabinet or on the kitchen shelf.

SkinGourmet,Amoabeng’s skincarerange,usesnatural rawmaterialsthatarepureandfreeof preservativesthatyoucoulduse on your skin andeatatthesametime.

Edible beauty?

“If you cannot eat what you are putting on your skin, then why put it on your face?” asks the Ghanaian entrepreneur who admits to always gravitating towards the unconventional.

“It made more sense because what

I wanted to create was something you could either choose to eat or wear, either way it is good for you.”

She launched Skin Gourmet Limited with only $45 five years ago, but it is now a business that generates over $200,000 annually.

“My dad would not give me the money to do any business because he believed that if you don’t do business

the hard way, you will not be able to survive when you hit hard times and no one will help you,” recalls Amoabeng about her journey to becoming a self-made businesswoman.

She had to think differently.

Even as a child, when her classmates were debating careers as doctors, bankers or lawyers, Amoabeng opted for poetry, when she could have easily thought of following in her parents’ footsteps.

Her father, one of Ghana’s most successful bankers, is the founder of UT Bank, and her mother was the Managing Director of the Ghana tourist board where her primary focus was social and human development.

“My dad was more of a dreamer and even though his mind was on profitability he wanted to build something that everyone would benefit from. My dad and my mum were more focused on me being a good person and not focused on a specific they were industry. What I wanted They just allowed me to dream. It to create was was more important that I leave a good legacy. It was would almost like something you could they are responsible for how their either choose to eat children will affect Amoabeng now how powerful that the world.” understands just upbringing was. or wear, either way it is good for you. Even after her parents’ divorce when she was still young, she was never separated from this goal of adding value to humanity.

Shuttling between Ghana, Uganda and Canada in her teenage years, she graduated with a marketing and business administration degree from the University of Northern Virginia before completing her masters in accounting and finance as well as in supply chain and logistics.

Her initial work experience was in her father’s bank before securing an internship with the African Development Bank in Tunisia.

“At the time, I wanted to take over my dad’s business. As life would have it, that didn’t work out but I still wanted to help people and I knew business is how to do it, but I didn’t know how it would look like,” says Amoabeng.

Her biggest challenge was acquiring capital to kickstart her business.

“I asked family members to help source ingredients etc. I would come back from work and the first formulation I made I got these three ugly containers from my mother. I had designed my logo and everything on my computer. So, I would manufacture, package, label, put it on the shelf and every Saturday I would go to the market to sell these products.” Being from Ghana proved to be advantageous for her fledgling startup. “I started to really focus on Ghana because even the idea of eating your skincare [ingredients] is something I realized Ghanaians used a long time ago but we have lost [that tradition]. When I go to source my ingredients, these are products that the local communities eat on a daily basis and it’s been done for a long time. Preservatives are not needed because these communities have not had electricity for a long time so they had a way to preserve the products and keep it [to] the highest qualities.” To get people to try her products, Amoabeng would give them away for free. Her father’s lesson in business of not expecting “any handouts from anyone” started to pay off. “My dad also started his company with almost nothing and he knew he had to struggle. In my dad’s mind, it is important to struggle because it is the strugglethatmakesyoustrongand innovative. “Istartedwiththeloveofmakingbodybutterwithoutdoing anyresearch.Theentrepreneurialjourneyhasbeencrazyhard. Itwillcrashyouanditbreaksyouandstretchesyoubutyou enjoyit.Whenyouseeanobstacleandit’shardbuteverytime youfindawayoveritandthatiswhatmakesitincredible.With everystageyouovercome,youbecomealittlebitgreater,”offers Amoabengasadvicetoaspiringentrepreneurs. AmoabenghasmanagedtotransformSkinGourmetinto asuccessfulstartupstorywithanaveragerevenuegrowthof 80%.Whatmakesthisremarkableisthefactthatthishasbeen achievedorganicallywithnooutsideinvestmentorbankloans. Andwiththat,shehaslearnedhergreatestlessonin business. “IhadalimitedwayofthinkingandIhadtoretrainmyself onhowtothink.Nothingisimpossible,everythingis possible and if you can’t do it, it is your fault. You never blame anybody for anything that happens to you.”

The $30 Billion Kitty

Private Equity’s Pet Whisperer Raymond Svider’s PetSmart win was enough to attract a $560 million investment from Blackstone for BC Partners to expand into credit and real estate investing The standard playbook in private equity is to borrow, buy and cut costs ruthlessly. But a massive windfall from investments in PetSmart and Chewy has taught BC Partners’ Raymond Svider that sometimes, doubling down on risks is a better option.

BY ANTOINE GARA

RAYMONDSVIDER, chairmanofprivate equityfirmBC Partners,remembers theintensepressurehe feltinthedaysleadinguptoChristmas in2017.Hisfirm’sbiggestinvestment, thebrick-and-mortarpetfoodretailer PetSmart,wasflailing.Itsantiquated technologyneededanoverhaul;costs wereballooning.Sviderwassplitting timebetweenBC’sofficeonMadison AvenueinManhattanandPetSmart’s Phoenixheadquarters,wherehewas actingCEO.PetSmart’sbondswere tradingjustabove60centsonthe dollar.

HearrivedinPhoenixtolearn fromPetSmart’sCIOthatthehighlyleveragedretailerhadputinplacea companywidehiringfreezetoconserve cash,forcingittorelyonpricey contractors.

“Ididn’tknowtherewasahiring freeze,”recallsSvider,whocanceled it on the spot, freeing his CIO to make

You need to be ruthless and very fast to adapt because in any business, the world is changing every day in ways you can’t anticipate.

35hires.“Youneedto benimbleandflexible. Sometimesstrictrules forcepeopletodothe wrongthingbecause they’rejustapplying rules.” Atthetime,Svider wasbuckingalmost everybusinessand investingconvention.Aleveragedbuyoutartistraisedin Paris,withamaster’sdegreeinelectricalengineeringfrom oneofFrance’s “grandes écoles” andanMBAfromthe UniversityofChicago,Svider,now59,wasworkingdouble duty—twodaysaweekstewardingthe$40billion(assets) PEfirm,threedaysat1,650-storePetSmart,forwhichBC paid$8.7billionin2014.

Loadedwith$6billionindebtfromtheLBOandafurther $800milliondividendSviderhadsiphonedoff,PetSmartwas hurtlingtowardbankruptcyaspetownersmovedsteadily online.Thestandardplaybookcalledforruthless cost cutting tounearththecashtorepaylenders.

Sviderdoubleddowninstead.

HefoundloopholesinPetSmart’screditagreements, enablinghimtoborrowevenmoremoney,angering creditors,sohecouldacquireunprofitableonlinepetfood retailerChewy.Totheoutsideworld,itwasthe21st-century versionofnotoriousdot-comflameoutPets.com.ButSvider knewChewy’sbillionairefounder,RyanCohen,wasbeating everyfinancialtargethe’dsetyearsearlierwhenthetwofirst met.Thoughitwasn’tprofitable,Chewywasn’tburningcash asitgrewrapidly.Mostimportantly,itwasbeatingAmazon initsniche.Itwastheperfectwaytoburnishhistroubledbet onPetSmart.

Startingwithanofferof$1billion,Sviderwoundup paying$3billionincashforChewy,beatingoutrivalPetco,in April2017.Skepticshowled,itsbondstumbledandlawsuits flew.Butfouryearsandapandemic-inspiredpetboomhave turnedSvider’srulebreakinggambitintooneofthebiggest privateequityscoresever.

Chewy,nowpubliclytraded,isworthmorethan$31 billion,anditssaleshaveskyrocketednearlytenfold,toa projected$9billionfor2021.PetSmartitselfisdeleveraging, havingrefinanceditsbuyoutdebtinJanuary.Alltold,Svider’s investorsaresittingona$30billionwindfall.

“Youneedtoberuthlessandveryfasttoadaptbecause inanybusiness,theworldischangingeverydayinwaysyou can’tanticipate,”saysSviderinhisFrenchaccent,speaking fromtheHamptonsmansionwherehenowworksremotely alongside his wife, three children and a pair of cats, Cashmere andPearl.“Convictionisreallyimportant.”

Aself-taughtinvestor,Svidergothisstartafterthego-go1980s’ leveragedbuyoutcraze.In1989,hewasrecruitedoutofgraduate schoolbylegendarydealmakersBruceWassersteinandJoePerella. Threeyearslater,hemovedtotheParisofficeofBaringCapital Investors,asmallbuyoutarmattachedtoLondon-basedBaringsBank.

In1995,aroguetraderatBarings,NickLeeson,lostover$1billion, renderingthe300-year-oldbankinsolvent.Baringswasboughtby competitorINGforpenniesonthedollar.Itturnedouttobeastroke ofluckforSvider,whohadbeenworkingalongsidethedivision’s cofounder.BaringCapitalwasspunoffandrenamedBCPartners.

Intheearly2000s,SvidermovedtoLondontocuttelecomdealsas marketswerederegulated,andin2007,whenBCPartnersexpanded intoNorthAmerica,Svidertookthehelm.

Thefirm’sfirstmajordealintheU.S.thatyearwasa$16billion takeoverofindebtedsatelliteoperatorIntelsat,whichpromptly becametroubledandwouldfileforbankruptcyprotectionin2020. Svider’shits,though,havefarexceededhismisses.

Nothingcharacterizeshiswinsmorethanawillingnesstotake boldbets.OnestandoutisGFLEnvironmental,aToronto-based wastemanagementrollupfoundedbyCanadianentrepreneurPatrick Divogi.In2018,BCPartnersrecapitalizedthecompanyata$2billion value,buildinga40%stakeandlookingtoexpanditintheU.S.with acquisitions.

Whenthecoronaviruscrisishit,GFLwasworkingonanIPO; SviderrecommendedtoDivogithattheyforgeaheaddespitethe market’stumult.GFLpriceditsIPOat$19,belowapre-pandemic rangeof$20to$21—oneofjustfivelistingsinMarch2020.Being public,Sviderbelieved,wouldhelpGFLcapitalizeonthecoming marketdislocation.Afteranearlytumbleto$13,GFL’sstockhasnearly tripledasitacquiredassetsfromHouston’sWasteManagementand othercompetitors.BCPartners’GFLholdingsarenowworthnearly $5billion,almostthreetimesitsinitialinvestment.“Raymondhas auniqueabilitytocutthroughtheBSandfocusonthebigpicture,” Divogisays.

Despiteprivateequity’slong-standinghabitofrealizingprofits asquicklyaspossible,Sviderseemstohavelittleinterestinselling Chewy,despitethefactthatsincemid-August,shareshavefallen from$96to$75,wipingoutabout$7billioningainsaspandemicpet spendingslowed.BCPartnershasa76%positioninthestockthat’s nowworthnearly$25billion.

TheremaybeonemorewinningmoveleftinSvider’spetsector gambit:theIPOofPetSmart,whichcouldfetcha$10billionvaluation. Theoncetroubledretailer’srevenuerose17%inthesecondquarterto $2.3billion,andinthefirsthalfitgenerated$342millioninfreecash flow.PetSmart’sformerlydistressedbondsnowtradeabovepar.

Sviderinsiststhepetmarket—includinganewfocusonhealth care—remainsunderappreciated.Ishelookingtoconsolidatehis gainswithaquickexit?Notnecessarily, he says: “We don’t feel that we’re in a particular rush.”

“The only positive thing of the pandemic is that it has brought something I am hugely proud of.” Jonathan Broomberg CEO of Vitality Health International

“The next few years will be a revolution,” says Emma Knox on the power of collaboration: during COVID-19, as the Health Workstream Lead for B4SA, she spearheaded partnerships to procure 2 billion rand (133 million USD) of PPE and medical equipment, bringing together major donors in the Solidarity Fund. Many companies like RMB, PWC, Deloitte, AB Inbev and Discovery, who offered volunteers and other resources, were proof that for Health Stewards in 2021 and beyond, collaboration is the name of the game. But if collaboration between governments, agencies, associations, and businesses—even competitors—is the way forward, will there ever be the same coordinated effort for healthcare as there is for Climate Change, as demonstrated in the recent COP26 Climate Change Conference?

COME TOGETHER, TOGETHER, RIGHT NOW—OVERSEAS RIGHT NOW—OVERSEAS

is Merck granting a royalty-free license the United Nations Medicines Patent Pool.

It’s a novel idea in drug development: instead of a system built to best practices from software like Linux and Firefox and potentially energize the race to end COVID-19. Merck’s initiative subsidizes access for 105 countries, mostly in Africa and Asia, and Stephen Saad of Aspen believes his company could market the drug for about $20 per dose—less than 3% of the $712 that the U.S. has agreed to pay.

And Merck is hardly alone. “Abbott’s new Pandemic Defense Coalition is dedicated to the early detection of, and rapid response to, future pandemic threats,” says Bassem Bibi, the company’s VP for Rapid Diagnostics. The worldwide program’s goal is to extend the continuum of the patient journey through a partnership with Axios and patient-assistance programs, expanding on viral surveillance and discovery over the last three decades through a network amounting to dozens of partners in strategic geographic locations.

for change in policy—especially for under prioritized diseases,” Bibi says. “Local evidence on the burden of disease is critical to shaping healthcare policies and looking to improving outcomes to enable universal coverage.”

dan should have to walk more than 30 minutes to access quality primary healthcare. “The Ministry of Health, in collaboration with a local NGO (Society for Family Health Rwanda) and Abbott, built eight second-generation health posts that bring primary care to local communities. As a result of this initiative, more people have gone to the new health posts for general check-ups, antenatal care, wound care, family planning and counseling and other basic services that previously they might have had to walk three hours to access!”

Ursula Myles, GM of Takeda, offers a similar instinct freeing up capacity for the production of the COVID-19 vaccine with Moderna and with J&J. “We partner with a number of organizations in Africa, such as the International Cancer Alliance, looking to raise awareness on non-communicable diseases,” says Myles. “Our efforts around NCD are a global issue. Hypertension is underdiagnosed and often not adequately managed, and it’s unfortunate that it happens across the country and continent. There are challenges in every market, from lack of information, to what they eat, to cultural barriers.” Takeda’s consortium reaches every country on the continent, but Myles highlights one of the biggest, Blueprints for Innovative Healthcare Access in Kenya, as well as expansions throughout Tanzania and Ghana that focus not only on the disease itself, but on education of healthcare professionals and on earlier diagnosis.

“We have one strategy, one concept for the group, but each local region’s implementation differs,” says Dr. Ronnie van der Merwe, CEO at Mediclinic. “In Switzerland, we partner with Migros, the country’s biggest wholesaler, across many service lines. Together we established MedBase, a series of primary care and consultation clinics offering radiology and lab services; Mediclinic runs the radiology and lab services, and Migros runs the consultations.”

Barnaby McKay, MD for Astellas international collaboration: having been appointed to South Africa from his previous role in the Middle East, used to routinely communicating with people in Algeria, Morocco, Lebanon, etc.,” McKay explains. “But to take on a one country—except me—was a new experience.”

“We would have never managed to create vaccines as quickly as we did without collaboration and partnerships within the sector,” says Rhulani Nhlaniki, CM for and President of IPASA. “All I can say is that the was the AstraZeneca partnership with Oxford University. There are many more examples to prove my point.”

For over 130 years MSD has been inventing for life, bringing forward medicines and vaccines for many of the world’s most challenging diseases in pursuit of our mission to save and improve lives. But innovating to create lifesaving medicines and vaccines is not enough if those who need them most can’t access them. That is why, since 2013, in partnership with GAVI, the Vaccine Alliance, we have been supporting national efforts across sub-Saharan Africa to vaccinate girls between the ages of 9 to 13 years old against the Human papillomavirus (HPV) - one of the leading causes of cervical cancer. Today, with programmes in over 14 countries across the continent and growing, we continue to make a meaningful contribution towards the World Health Organization’s Cervical Cancer Elimination Strategy which aims to have 90% of girls vaccinated against HPV by 2030.

THINK GLOBAL, GLOBAL, ACT LOCAL

ShelleyHorner CEO of NovartisSouthAfrica.

But beyond relieving some of the hardest-hit households with PPE or food parcels, “we’re partnering on an ongoing basis with the Clicks Helping Hand Trust,” adds Horner, “through which we have donated over 9,000 reusable sanitary pads for low-income families the pandemic.” Other than philanthropic contributions, Novartis developed strategic partnerships to enhance access, and “very successfully created a ing new drugs virtually in the country using Zoom, webinars, MS Teams or other platforms,” Horner says. and our CRA’s, who engaged directly with patients and healthcare professionals. Our clinical trials were never once at risk during the pandemic, thanks to those partnerships.” “We can’t do it on our own,” agrees Zwelethu Bashman, MD of MSD for South Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa. “We partner with community-based organizations as well as nurse-run institutions within the communities, and we take things a step further by upskilling with technology and social media,” Bashman explains, citing the example of a recent HPV campaign where a single doctor reached “We must make a greater effort to engage with the end customers,” Bashman insists, “to share information and education and not always leave our health up to Dr. Google!” Abofele Khoele faced a unique challenge as MD for Organon: not only was the company spun off from MSD in the middle of the pandemic, Khoele helmed the women’s health specialist totally remotely. “Collaboration is vital, and as a 2021 startup we leverage technology in our continent where infrastructure does not always allow us to access remote areas,” Khoele says. “We are very focused on e-health and fem-tech and we believe these two will transform the future of healthcare delivery in Africa.” “At a local level, it’s paramount to care for my team,” says Bertrand Chane-Sam of . “It is through them that we are able to deliver our products and ensure business continuity,” Chane-Sam adds, including recent partner of certain vital medicines since the beginning of 2020.” Globally, Clinigen and provide access to medication that isn’t available in a given market. “Our business is to reach out to small biotech companies and partner with them,” says MD Carel Bouwer. “We do the distribution and supply chain, give them medical support, quality support and pharmacovigilance support,” Bouwer explains. “We ensure the development of the product and that it reaches the customers; we have agreements to provide the medications and access to those treatments, approaching both new products and old products with new registrations.” “We started out with a very simple vision: to bridge Western science and African need,” says , CEO of Kiara Health. “We partnered with the people who developed ventilators, and we have two partnerships with locally developed products. We want to meet the need with quality and the demand with healthcare products in aid of the health of South Africans,” says Ngozwana, and adds “ultimately we see ourselves as a player that can play a small but meaningful role in advancing the agenda of localization and local innovation.”

OUR PURPOSE IS TO REIMAGINE MEDICINE TO IMPROVE AND EXTEND PEOPLE’S LIVES.

STRONGER TOGETHER

“It is always harder to win on our own,” admits Mia Louw of GuerbetSouth Africa. “Being a small

We are a family-owned company, and teamwork prevails over individual work—we need all parts to collaborate and not work as a silo.” Because the imaging industry is relatively small and highly competitive, Louw says that collaboration can sometimes be challenging—but it does exist, as evidenced with Guerbet’s relationships with Philips and Siemens, installing TT persuaded to invest toward disease prevention and access to medicine. “These are fundamental issues,” Louw says. “A strong case should be made in terms of the promotion of health as a basic human right and as a means to contribute to poverty alleviation and economic stability.” “95% of our people are back,” says Anthony Diack, MD of DSV Healthcare, with some relief: “I think people are more innovative when working together; solutions are easier to come by in face to face situations.” Three quarters of Diack’s 1450-person workforce are in warehouse operations or are driving staff and didn’t have the luxury of working managers, as managing remotely means a different mindset,” Diack adds. “Initially, it was learned the necessary skillset, in the long term I want everybody back!”

number of health partnerships in South Africa

increase availability of treatment

prevent the spread of diseases

develop new treatments for diseases address health system infrastructure of which...

...focus on training a health workforce

Source: IFPMA Neglected tropical diseases (NTDs)

Vaccine preventable diseases

Infectious diseases

Women & children’s health Non-communicable diseases (NCDs)

QUICK TIPS: TIPS: ALL TOGETHER NOW ALL TOGETHER NOW

Ursula Myles, GM of Takeda: “An important lesson learnt internally was to stay connected, to pivot to become more digital savvy, have information available, and keep all lines of communication open. Embracing digital platforms and various ways of communications was key for business continuity but to also make sure that our people, patients and customers continued to feel supported.”

Shelley Horner Country President NOVARTIS SA: “The world agile, resilient and learn to be digital savvy and to engage with a virtual ecosystem. Novartis has a company culture with three important legs, i) being inspired, ii) being curious and iii) being unbossed. The integration of technology will go hand in hand with the culture we offer, culture that has grown in environment we all have had to adapt to. The culture gives us a sense of belonging.” Eyong Ebai, General Manager of Sub-Saharan Africa GE Healthcare: “The ability to bring in human or technical resources or components equipment from overseas cannot be taken for granted, survive. The pandemic taught a lot of companies that localization strategy is critical for long term success. Another lesson was in resilience — and the ability for teams to work together as a family to overcome tremendous obstacles. I am out there with my teams, looking for solutions collectively. And despite being very stressful, being in a challenging situation was my element, having to change, pivot and adjust to doing things differently.”

Ivan and Lynette Saltzman, DisChem: “It’s about rolling up your sleeves and doing the best you can in a changing environment! The situation is changing constantly, so basically you have to navigate it as it comes—the making and breaking of rules, and deal with all that must be dealt with when it comes to South African business, the Department of Health, and the Director General of Health.”

Sandra Orta, GM for Roche Diagnostics: “We had to act very quickly and all together – no one alone could handle the pandemic – and we need everyone: the government, the private sector, suppliers, etc., not competing but each of us bringing our best in aid of the country. From March 1st to April 14th, we gained suppliers getting support soon after. We couldn’t have done it alone. We needed a lab to validate It was not easy to get products in, and what we got was never enough, as resources went to other countries as well. Collabo- ration was fundamental.”

Jonathan Broomberg, CEO of Vitality Health International: “We did a huge amount of ground work in communication, on vaccination, on modeling, and on data collection. There has been an emerging trend around the relevance and utilization of health data pools: the emergence of Big Data insights and related digital engagement has been accelerated by Covid.”

Dr. Ryan Noach, CEO of Discovery Health: “Early in the pandemic, using our rich internal data sources complemented with national and international data, we developed measures and dashboards to closely track the COVID-19 evolution. The dashboard is now released daily. It has become visible and traveled all over South Africa in both healthcare and non-healthcare organizations. The dashboard is extensive, measuring all the elements of Covid-19 with information per province, per region; we look at new infections, hospital admissions, severe illness and mortality. We are constantly iterating and building on this, as we now enter the phase of measuring and managing vaccination. We are closely tracking the non-Covid related healthcare utilization, because Covid-19 has effectively squeezed out other parts of the healthcare system. Aside from the usual measures of productivity and health of our people, we have all these added complexities of tracking epidemic diseases which we do now on a d to-day basis.”

If you had to create a Master in

“Empathy, adaptability and communicati . 2020 and 2021 have been years of learning for us all, years where we had to change our business models and adapt to working virtually. From 2020 onwards, our customers and stakeholders have different expectations and a different understanding of what is possible. Going forward, I see a hybrid model with a combination of virtual and face-to-face interactions becoming the norm,” says Rhulani Nhlaniki, CM for “Critical thinking and agility. Critical thinking allows to dissect problems and gives a person the ability to take a step back and think through problems considering both the positive and negative impact in an ecosystem and track that impact to see if the potential outcome is aligned with what the solution aims at. Secondly, agility: we have gone too far developing a new muscle and we are in a far better place than we were Zwelethu Bashman from MSD South Africa